Document text
Principal Investigator: Alice M Graham
Organization: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $20,000
Funding agency: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Neurodevelopmental disorders, including psychiatric symptoms and learning disabilities, and substance use,
remain public health concerns as they can lead to suboptimal educational and occupational outcomes in
adolescence and adulthood. Human brain development is a complex process that begins in the weeks following
conception and undergoes rapid development through the first two years of postnatal life. Advancing
understanding of early neurodevelopmental processes, and the conditions which foster healthy versus
maladaptive development, represents a critical means of addressing these challenges. The rapidly growing field
of fetal, infant, and toddler neuroimaging demonstrates potential to contribute to this area, with an increase from
160 to 530 publications per year during the 1990's to 2021. Yet, a myriad of challenges hinder progress of the
field including methodological issues related to data acquisition and processing; rapid changes in available
technology and tools with limited resources for dissemination to users; and underrepresentation of minoritized
individuals among research participants and researchers. We considered the growing pains of the community
and responded to the need for a bridge organization that brings together those with expertise in developmental
neuroscience, clinical-science, and computational and biomedical engineering to facilitate advances in data
quality and image processing tools for the young brain. The Fetal, Infant, and Toddler Neuroimaging Group
(FIT'NG), non-profit academic society established in 2018, aims to bring together interdisciplinary researchers
with a focus on neurodevelopment during the first years of life. An annual meeting focused solely on this field is
essential to keep up with technological advances, establish and share best practices to address methodological
challenges, and increase diversity at every level. We propose a multi-year conference application to support the
following specific aims: to (1) stimulate new research and collaboration between FIT'NG scientists across
disciplines; (2) increase the opportunity for scientists from racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse
backgrounds, with particular attention to underrepresented minority scientists, to highlight their work, and engage
effectively in this field of research; and (3) promote and support the development of the next generation of FIT'NG
researchers by providing financial and career support for young investigators to attend the meeting. The timing
of the meetings aligns with the Healthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) initiative of eight NIH institutes, a
groundbreaking study involving neuroimaging with thousands of newborns across the United States that will be
prospectively followed from birth through childhood. The FIT'NG meeting will provide a forum for U.S.
investigators both within and outside of the HBCD network to exchange information and collaborate, and engage
with the international community of scientists conducting fetal, infant and toddler neuroimaging research.
Terms: <0-11 years old><0-4 weeks old><12-20 years old><21+ years old><Address><Adolescence><Adult><Adult Human><Area><Attention><Award><Biomedical Engineering><Birth><Brain><Brain Nervous System><Child><Child Development><Child Youth><Childhood><Children (0-21)><Clinical><Clinical Sciences><Collaborations><Communities><Community Networks><Complex><Computer software><Conceptions><Data><Development><Discipline><Disease><Disorder><Education><Educational aspects><Educational workshop><Encephalon><Engineering><Environmental Exposure><Ethnic Origin><Ethnicity><Event><Faculty><Fostering><Funding><Group Meetings><Human><Individual><Individuals from minority><Individuals of minority><Infant><Infant and Child Development><International><Intervention><Intervention Strategies><Investigators><Knowledge><Learning Disabilities><Learning disability><Life><Methodology><Methods><Minority Groups><Minority People><Minority Population><Minority individual><Modern Man><Motivation><NIH><National Institutes of Health><Neural Development><Neurodevelopmental Disorder><Neurological Development Disorder><Neurosciences><Neurosciences Research><Newborn Infant><Newborns><Occupational><Outcome><Pain><Painful><Participant><Parturition><Physics><Postdoc><Postdoctoral Fellow><Prevention><Prize><Process><Psychiatrist><Psychiatry><Psychologist><Psychology><Public Health><Publications><Qualifying><Race><Races><Research><Research Associate><Research Personnel><Research Resources><Researchers><Resources><Science><Scientific Publication><Scientist><Shapes><Societies><Software><Students><Technical Expertise><Technology><Toddler><Training><Underrepresented Ethnic Minority><Underrepresented Minority><United States><United States National Institutes of Health><Work><Workshop><adolescence (12-20)><adolescent trauma><adulthood><bio-engineered><bio-engineers><bioengineering><biological engineering><career><childhood trauma><community building><computerized data processing><conference><convention><data acquisition><data acquisitions><data processing><data quality><developmental><early childhood><fetal><human capital><image processing><interventional strategy><kids><meeting><meetings><minority scientist><multidisciplinary><neural imaging><neural mechanism><neuro-imaging><neurodevelopment><neurodevelopmental disease><neuroimaging><neurological imaging><neuromechanism><newborn child><newborn children><next generation><novel><pediatric><pediatric trauma><post-doc><post-doctoral><post-doctoral trainee><postnatal><prenatal><prospective><psychiatric symptom><racial><racial background><racial origin><research associates><response><socio-economic><socio-economically><socioeconomically><socioeconomics><substance use><substance using><summit><symposia><symposium><technical skills><tool><trauma in children><unborn><under-representation of minorities><under-represented minority><underrepresentation of minorities><waiver><youngster>